July 26

Our Security

This is the Father's will which hath sent me, that of all which he hath given me given me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up again at the last day — John 6:39

There is not a shadow of doubt in the Christian’s hope. There is not a broken link in the chain that binds the believer to eternal blessedness. There is not a step wanting in the ladder that reaches up from the depths of sin to the heights of glory. “Whom he foreknew, he also foreordained to be conformed to the image of his Son ... and whom he foreordained, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified.” These are the links in the Christian’s hope as St. Paul saw them; in the words of to-day’s text we have the same links as they appeared to our Saviour’s eye.

The assurance is, that Christ will never lose any soul that intrusts itself to Him for salvation. “Yet Christians die, just like other people,” says some one. Yes; but they are not then lost; their spirits pass at once into glory with Christ, and their bodies will only rest in the grave until the resurrection. An old Christian sailor put it well. When asked if he was not afraid when the storms were very high, he answered that according to the Bible God held the waters “in the hollow of his hand;” and ever if the ship were wrecked, and he should fall into the sea, he would but drop into his Father’s hand. That is what death is to a Christian, however and wherever he may die, breathing his soul into the hands of God.

The grave seems dark, but we have Christ’s own pledge here that not one of His own shall be lost or left in the grave. No matter where we die, or where our bodies lie, we have the Saviour’s word — Which we had better receive in simplicity, without questioning or doubt — that He “will lose nothing, but will raise it up again at the last day.”